From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 05/08
Date: 1997/05/08
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 240277090
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling
[Wrestling TidBits]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new school term is underway. I am teaching 1B Calculus (140 students)
and third-year differential equations (40 students), so I think I will be
fairly busy again. Because of the preparation for teaching, I don't have
too much to say this week. My new office doesn't have a terminal in it yet,
so I've been unable to check news/mail with my old frequency, not to
mention typeset assignmnets, etc. Argh. No new pictures this
week...apologies.
All of my web pages have moved from barrow to math. The new base URL is
http://math.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze/wrestle/wrestle.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ - ] The Observer reports this week that there is a lot of speculation
that the ECW buy rates figures being bandied about are all extremely
generous. We'll have to wait until June before the legitimate figure is
reported.
[ - ] Scott Levy, ECW's Raven did sign a three-year contract with WCW for
$225K/year. He can't appear in the ring until 10/13 (six months after
the ECW show), although there is talk that Eric Bischoff is trying to work
out something with Paul Heyman. Speculation now is that Rob van Dam will
not be going to WCW, that the parties spoke once and never agreed to
anything.
[ RAW ]this week remained the Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin show. When
you've got a strong angle, you stick with it. This time around
Bret continued to hate the American fans, Austin got beat up, the Shawn
Michaels & Austin team continued to be teased, and Vader & Ken Shamrock
came to blows. I'm pretty stoked for that match (Vader vs. Shamrock) this
Sunday, since it will be damn interesting to see if Shamrock makes the
right first impression on PPV. After Vader, it doesn't seem like the WWF
has any other opponented for Shamrock, IMO. Also on RAW, Goldust, following
the lead of Ellen Degeneres, came out of the closet as Dustin Runnels, son
of Dusty Rhodes. They tried to convince us that Dustin was tired of being
in his father's shadow, that he was tired of people approaching him asking
first how his father was doing. It didn't move me. It was left somewhat
unclear whether there were plans for Dustin to drop the Goldust gimmick at
some point. All in all, the WWF seems to be building a couple of great
story lines, but it seems clear that the PPV matches are all going to be
screw jobs. The Legion of Doom suffered a screw job loss to Doug Furnas &
Phil LaFon, who still can't find anybody in the promotion who can work at
their level. Vince came up with a gimmick out of that reality: praise their
ability but criticize their charisma. Steve Austin got a win over Davey Boy
Smith. None of the wrestling was noteworthy.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on Sunday. Line-up has:
o Undertaker vs. Steve Austin for the WWF Title
o Ahmed Johnson vs. Faarooq & Crush & Savio Vega (in three separate
matches)
o Legion of Doom vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith for the WWF Tag Titles
o Ken Shamrock vs. Vader in a UFC-style match
o Goldust vs. Mankind
o Flash Funk vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
I won't be surprised if the top three matches have screwy finishes. Surely,
the Hart Foundation will screw Austin out of the title (the real question
is whether Austin can show that he is good enough to get a bearable match
out of the Undertaker). It might seem likely that the Legion of Doom will
win the tag titles, but maybe Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon will screw them
over. Announced plans have Hart & Smith as champs at King of the Ring, but
that can change. I'm only anxious to see Shamrock debut on a WWF PPV.
Mankind's contract is up and he hasn't renewed.
[ - ] New Japan had a major show on 05/03/97 in the Osaka Dome. Quick
results:
o Shinya Hashimoto beat Naoyi Ogawa by TKO to retain the IWGP Title
o Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima retained the IWGP Tag Titles,
beating Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki
o Shiro Koshinaka beat Kengo Kimura
o El Gran Hamada & Super Delfin & Great Sasuke & Norio Honga & El
Samurai lost to Dick Togo & Mens Teoh & Hanzo Nakajima & Shinjiro
Otani & Koji Kanemoto
o Antonio Inoki & Tiger King (Satoru Sayama) beatYoshiaki Fujiwara &
Jushin Liger
o Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner & Keiji Muto lost to Scott Hall & Kevin
Nash & Masa Chono as the run-in screw jobs hit New Japan
o Lex Luger & Giant lost to Scott Norton & Marcus Bagwell, as the NWO
continued to screw the faces over
o Syxx & NWO Sting beat Tadao Yasuda & Junji Hirata, for an NWO sweep in
tag matches
o Tatsumi Fujinami beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan
[ - ] [Nitro ] beat [ RAW ] 04/21 with a 3.38 rating against a 2.75
rating. For the next month, the shows will not be head-to-head. The
detailed ratings are a click away.
[ - ] The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the
WWF has an average buy rate of 0.55 (0.54) and average gross of
$1.42-million ($1.41-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of 0.70
(0.65) and average gross of $2.05-million ($1.92-million).
The details as they stand are available.
[ - ] WCW has Slamboree on 05/18/97. Tentative line-up has:
o Ric Flair & Roddy Piper & Kevin Greene vs. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash &
Syxx
o Steve McMichael vs. Reggie White
o Steiners vs. Konnan & Hugh Morrus
o Madusa vs. Luna Vachon
o Chris Benoit vs. Meng in a death match
o Rey Misterio Jr vs. Yuji Yasuraoka
o Ultimo Dragon vs. Steve Regal for the TV Title
o Dean Malenko vs. Jeff Jarrett for the US Title
o Mortis vs. Glacier
The Observer reports that the planned finish for Steve McMichael vs. Reggie
White had McMichael using a new briefcase for the screwy win, but that that
may be out the window since they did the angle on Nitro where McMichael had
a briefcase again (after Reggie supposedly took it).
The Observer also reports that the Great Muta may join the NWO at this
show. In New Japan, they have been teasing Muta/Muto's turn much like WCW
has done with Sting.
[ - ] All Japan Pro-Wrestling has a major at Budokan Hall on 06/06/97,
featuring Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuhara Misawa.
[ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. Line-up has:
o Undertaker vs. Ahmed Johnson for the WWF Title
o Davey Boy Smith & Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels for the
WWF Tag Titles
These two matches have been announced to local fans.
[ - ] WCW has the Great American Bash on 06/15/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 07/06/97.
[ - ] WCW has Bash at the Beach on 07/13/97.
[ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97.
[ - ] WCW has Hog Wild on 08/09/97.
[ - ] ECW has its second PPV on 08/17/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 09/07/97.
[ - ] WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/14/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 10/05/97.
[ - ] WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97.
[ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97.
[ - ] WCW has World War III on 11/23/97.
[ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/07/97.
[ - ] WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97.
[ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The
wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history,
Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things.
[ - ] Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. I'm way
behind on tape watching and I haven't had time to respond to tape-related
e-mail. Apologies to anybody who has contacted me, but things are just too
hectic for me these days.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click here to return.
E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca